Embrace the zombie: Keep Halloween in schools

Schools across the nation have dared to ban Halloween, unnecessarily taking the sheer, unadulterated joy anticipated by children everywhere and stamping them to a pumpkin-textured pulp.

Banning Halloween from schools is nothing but a humbug, and a dreadful humbug at that.

What happened to just stopping for a minute and having some fun? Really, what's wrong with a little fun?

These killjoy, party pooper schools have tried to reason away their disdain for the holiday.

Some have cited safety issues surrounding costumes, as if playing football or basketball, or being on the top of the cheerleader pyramid were any less dangerous school activities — and those activities go on for more than one day.

Come to think of it, I don't think I have ever heard of an epidemic of injures by Halloween costume that would prompt such a safety concern, and if school officials were so worried, maybe they should simply issue a Halloween costume dress code.

Some schools have said celebrating the holiday somehow takes away from important schoolwork, as if pep rallies, standardized tests, or the celebration of Thanksgiving is any less of a distraction.

Some have even blamed peanut allergies and that Halloween parties and the candy available therein is reason enough to cancel the whole thing altogether.

The last time I checked, peanut M&M's and Snickers are available all year around, and as far as I can tell, peanut dishes never have been limited to the Halloween buffet table. I am pretty sure peanut brittle and peanut butter cookies are as easy to find at a Christmas party as they are at a Halloween celebration.

In one letter sent home by Inglewood Elementary School just outside of Philadelphia, the principal wrote there would be no Halloween celebration because some people felt the holiday has "religious overtones," not that I have ever seen a Church of Ghoul or a Church of Goblin, for that matter.

And then we get to the chewy center of the matter, the one hiding like the invisible man behind these sketchy reasons of peanut allergies and safety concerns: that some schools are concerned the holiday, with its macabre traditions of vampires and witches, is offensive to some religious groups — or rather, a few people in those religious groups. Yet, this is the same argument that might be applied to Christmas or Easter, which non-Christians might find offensive, so maybe we shouldn't celebrate those holidays in school, either.

I just do not believe that Halloween is about evil or Satan worship. Its history, one that dates back centuries, is tied as much to pagan rituals as any other holiday, including Easter.

The reasons are not enough to justify taking away a holiday that is so beloved by children. Not to celebrate it in school, when so many other holidays are, is telling them that it isn't something worth celebrating and that, somehow, there is something wrong with decorating a pumpkin or wearing a costume or watching "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown."

It is understandable that, like everything else, Halloween has become a monster of a holiday that has become so big that it comes to the point of distraction. In that case, limit its celebration to a certain amount of time. And it is understandable that the fall festivals and classroom parties get to be too much. In that case, ban all celebrations in equal proportion — Halloween, Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, Columbus Day.

Otherwise, leave Halloween alone, people with hearts two sizes too small, and just let the children have a little fun.

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